Thursday, November 30, 2023
New AI may threaten 'safe' office jobs, say researchers | BBC News
Is China cozying up to the West once more? | DW News
Six In The Morning Thursday 30 November 2023
Two women freed by Hamas as more hostage releases expected
The advocacy group the Palestinian Prisoners Club has published its list of Palestinians held in Israeli jails who it says are expected to be released today as part of the truce exchange deal.
There are 22 minors and eight women on that list.
The 30 have been chosen from an original list of 300 Palestinians compiled by Israel - accused of a range of offences, from throwing stones to incitement to attempted murder.
Less than a quarter of those on that list had been convicted – the vast majority were being held on remand while awaiting trial.
Two more hostages have been freed by Hamas - French-Israeli Mia Schem, who was kidnapped from the Supernova music festival, and lawyer Amit Soussana
Russia outlaws ‘international LGBT public movement’ as extremist
Human rights activists say supreme court’s vague wording provides wide scope for persecution
Russia’s supreme court has outlawed what it called an “international LGBT public movement” as extremist, in a landmark ruling that representatives of gay and transgender people warn will lead to arrests and prosecutions of the already repressed LGBTQ+ community.
The ruling in effect outlaws LGBTQ+ activism in a country growing increasingly conservative since the start of the war in Ukraine. The “extremist” label could mean that gay, lesbian, transgender or queer people living in Russia could receive lengthy prison sentences if deemed by the authorities to be part of the so called “international LGBT public movement”.
The justice ministry earlier this month filed a request that the “international LGBT movement” be labelled extremist, without clarifying what it meant under the term, which is not a registered entity in Russia but rather a broad definition used by the Russian authorities.
Gaza conflict: Middle East tourism struggles for survival
Tourism plays an important role in the economies of countries like Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon. But visitor bookings are falling because of fears around the nearby conflict in the Gaza Strip.
Moustafa Hassan is slowly starting to worry.
"Sharm [el-Sheikh] is safe, it is a city of peace," insisted the Egyptian man who works as a food and beverage manager at a hotel in the popular resort town. But potential visitors seem to be thinking twice about coming, the 50-year-old father of four told DW.
"The number of tourists to Egypt has decreased due to the Gaza war," Hassan noted. Sharm el-Sheikh is about a three-hour drive from the Israeli border and, of all of Egypt's traditional tourist sites, closest to Israel's border with Egypt.
Ibama: Brazil's environmental police are back on the job
When President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva returned to power in January, he revived Brazil's environmental police force. The Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) is "back at work", says its president, Rodrigo Agostinho. After years of budget cuts under Lula's predecessor Jair Bolsonaro, Ibama has seen its resources triple since the start of the year and is now stepping up its efforts to combat deforestation and illegal gold mining as well as limit livestock farming. FRANCE 24 reports from the northern state of Para.
Geandro Guerreiro views a map on his phone showing his next destination in between the startling swerves the pick-up truck makes to avoid gaping holes in the dirt road.
"We've got around 10 plots of land to check in this area today. The owners probably won't be there, but the aim is to record the offence, fly over the area and notify the culprits as quickly as possible."
The man in charge of the ground mission here is supervising around 15 Ibama police officers in this Amazonian no man's land, which is being eroded by pastures. "Everything in grey is land that has been illegally deforested and is already under embargo," he explains, pointing to a map covered in spots. Here in the town of Pacaja, Guerreiro admits they have to tread carefully.
Japan suspends its own Osprey flights after U.S. aircraft crash
Japan suspended flights by its Osprey aircraft Thursday, officials said, the day after a U.S. Air Force Osprey based in Japan crashed into the sea during a training mission.
Tokyo has also asked the U.S. military to ground all Ospreys operating in Japan except for those searching for victims of the crash.
A senior Defense Ministry official, Taro Yamato, told a parliamentary hearing that Japan has suspended flights of Ospreys beginning Thursday until details of the crash and safety are confirmed.
Xi Jinping visits financial hub Shanghai for first time in three years as Chinese economy sputters
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has visited Shanghai for the first time in three years, as his government steps up efforts to prop up the country’s economy and financial markets.Xi made the trip on Tuesday and Wednesday and he visited the Shanghai Futures Exchange, a tech exhibition in the Zhangjiang High-tech Park, and a government-subsidised rental housing community, according to state-run Xinhua News Agency.He was accompanied by top government officials, including Vice Premier He Lifeng and Cai Qi, his chief of staff.
Wednesday, November 29, 2023
8-year-old shot dead by Israeli forces in West Bank -| BBC News
Why Finland is closing its borders as migrants seek to enter from Russia...
【ライブカメラ】日暮里 東京の鉄道 2023-11-30 03:00- Tokyo Japan Train Live camera
Six In The Morning Wednesday 29 November 2023
Israeli forces raid Jenin in West Bank as truce efforts continue
We will fight to the end - Netanyahu
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has reiterated his position that a full ceasefire is not on the cards and his forces will fight "until the end".
As we've been reporting, Egyptian and Qatari mediators are working to try to secure an extension to the current pause in fighting.
"From the start of the war, I set three goals: eliminating Hamas, returning all of our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will never again go back to being a threat to the State of Israel. These three goals still stand," Netanyahu said in statement.
He said the return of dozens of hostages was a "very great achievement".
"But in recent days I have heard a question: After completing this stage of the return of our hostages, will Israel go back to the fighting? My answer is an unequivocal yes.
Closing arguments begin in trial of Hong Kong pro-democracy activists
Judge says verdict is ‘tentatively’ three or four months away after 10 months of hearings
The long-running national security trial of a group of pro-democracy figures known as the Hong Kong 47 began hearing closing arguments on Wednesday, more than 1,000 days after the accused were first arrested and after 10 months of hearings.
The trial is Hong Kong’s biggest since authorities introduced the national security law in June 2020. Ten days have been allowed for closing arguments and on Wednesday one of the judges, Andrew Chan, said a verdict was “tentatively” three or four months away.
More than 50 pro-democracy politicians, activists, campaigners and candidates were arrested in February 2021 over the holding of unofficial pre-election primary polls, which authorities later deemed to have been illegal despite opposing parties having held unofficial primaries in past elections.
German court upholds wiretaps of climate activists to press
A court in Bavaria has ruled that police were right in wiretapping phone calls between members of the Last Generation climate activist group and journalists.
The Munich District Court on Wednesday ruled in favor of police over their wiretapping of phone calls between the Last Generation climate activist group and its press contacts.
The German court, which issued an order allowing the surveillance, ruled that the violation of the freedom of the press could be justified because of the threat posed by the group's actions.
What the court ruling said
The court rejected six complaints filed by journalists over the surveillance of their communications with the activist group, which is well-known in Germany for blockading road traffic.
The court found that a surveillance order had been correctly issued by a judge and that the surveillance had been carried out according to the law.
Ukraine accuses Russia of poisoning military intelligence chief’s wife
Ukraine said Tuesday it believed Russia had poisoned the wife of its military intelligence chief, in an apparent assassination attempt targeting the heart of Kyiv's leadership.
Marianna Budanova, who is an advisor to Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko, was hospitalised after a prolonged deterioration in her health, the Babel news outlet reported earlier.
Ukrainian investigators' "main hypothesis" is that Russia was involved in the poisoning attempt, Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov later told AFP.
"The target was the wife," he added, because "it is simply impossible to reach the commander directly."
There were no immediate comments from Russian authorities.
Yusov said mercury and arsenic, highly toxic substances, were used in the attack.
Up to 170,000 residents must flee if order given at Tokai reactor
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
November 29, 2023 at 17:01 JST
As many as 170,000 residents would be forced to evacuate if a serious accident occurred at Japan Atomic Power Co.’s Tokai No. 2 plant, the only commercial reactor in the greater Tokyo metropolitan area.
The Ibaraki prefectural government on Nov. 28 released the estimate, which Japan Atomic Power calculated for the spewing of radioactive materials in the event of a major crisis at the Tokai plant.
Prefectural officials said this was the first case in the nation of a local government asking a utility operating a nuclear reactor to make such an estimate to assess the effectiveness of evacuation plans.
COP28 leader hits back at allegations he used climate talks to strike oil deals
Updated 7:47 AM EST, Wed November 29, 2023
The COP28 president-designate Sultan Al Jaber has strongly denied accusations that his team sought to use the international climate talks in Dubai to strike fossil fuel deals for the UAE’s state-owned oil and gas company.
Several media outlets, including CNN, this week published stories based on a cache of leaked documents obtained by the UK-registered Centre for Climate Reporting, which appeared to be briefing notes for Al Jaber for meetings with foreign officials in the run-up to the summit. Al Jaber also runs the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC). He denies ever seeing the documents or ever using such talking points in his discussions.
Several of the documents detailed suggestions to offer new oil and gas projects to visiting officials, which would benefit the UAE.